Boxing Day deals before Christmas becomes newest gimmick

Retailers are promoting deals that have been normally presented after Dec. 25, much similar to the way Black Friday has come earlier in recent years.

Boxing Day deals

Bernard Weil / Toronto Star File Photo

Shoppers traditionally flock to shopping centres on Boxing Day to take advantage of low prices and bargain deals. This year, Boxing Day appears to have come early as retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon are starting their sales before Christmas.

First Black Friday bumped up, now the Boxing Day shopping creep is becoming standard.

While Amazon.ca is opening its “Boxing Day Deals store” again on Dec. 23, and Best Buy’s Boxing Day sale starts on Christmas Eve, sporting retailers Atmosphere and Sport Chek advertised Boxing Day sales that began on Saturday and other businesses were pushing Boxing Week events even earlier.

“It certainly is a creep and I don’t know if it makes sense,” said Alex Arifuzzaman of InterStratics Consulting Inc. of the shift from the traditional Dec. 26 sales bonanza.

“From a retailer profit point of view, I don’t see what the advantage is. The retailers before Christmas are bursting at the seams, so what’s the point of lowering your margins at a time when there’s a shopping frenzy going on?

“The customers before Christmas are willing to pay higher margins than the ones after Christmas. Boxing Day was typically lower margins to clear inventory after the holiday selling period. You might increase your sales (pushing Boxing Day earlier), but is it going to increase your profits?”

If it is a promotional gimmick, Arifuzzaman said Canadian retailers should heed the results down south where the shopping day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, has moved forward a day in recent years.

“I’ve been reading some of the retailers that have said that was not a successful strategy; it took away the sense of urgency that was traditionally associated with Black Friday, so there was not as much overall business,” he said. “People with that urgency, they went the day before and when Black Friday rolled around there wasn’t as much anticipation; the trigger was already pulled on it.”

An 11-per-cent drop in Black Friday sales across the U.S. was reported last month, the second consecutive year of decline in Black Friday sales.

Arifuzzaman said it may be beneficial for online entities that are not able to deliver by Christmas to drive traffic with Boxing Day sales on Dec. 23 and 24.

That’s not the case with Amazon.ca though: same day delivery, available in Toronto and Vancouver on orders placed before noon, could land some of their Boxing Day deals under the tree in time for Christmas.